Next Step
by TheChronicler137
Summary: What happens when Percy and Annabeth have a fight that ends with him walking out the door? Why, he takes it to the next step, of course. Moderate AU; no HoO.


Next Step

**A/N Rated T for somewhat suggestive lyrics and pretty suggestive behaviour (nothing actually happens, though).**

**Yes, I'm aware that I've written a story about Percy singing badly before, but this is an AU, so he can sing.**

The people around Percy gave him a wide berth as he walked down the California streets. Despite his…_unusual_ appearance, the light in his eyes was cold. Hard. _Murderous._

He turned the corner and stopped in front of the familiar door.

Hate, anger, passion and love bubbled within him, and a single image floated to the surface of his sea of emotions.

Her smile. Her laugh. Her curls. Her eyes.

Her glare. Her scowl. Her scream. Her tears.

_Her._

He stared at the door, thinking about her. All those years they had known each other. Half a decade of adventuring. Two years as a happy couple. And now…

_I'm going to fix this_, he told himself.

_This ends now, one way or another._

He walked up to the door, and knocked.

* * *

Annabeth jumped when she heard the pounding on the door.

She knew who it was, of course. Half the time, she'd been praying for this moment. Half the time, she'd been praying it wouldn't come.

She still remembered every last detail of the fight, every spiteful word, every drop of vitriol each had flung at the other.

_And…and then…the parting blow._

A warm sting spread over her cheek.

_Why, Percy? Why did you do it? You promised me, Percy. You promised you'd always protect me, that you'd never do anything to hurt me._

But no matter how badly she wanted to hate him for what he'd done, she _loved_ him. There was nothing that either of them could do to change that.

And then again, she wasn't sure what she felt. She had been scared to death that the fight had been the end for them. That he might never come back. That she had lost the love of her life. She just wanted to see him, _touch _him, once more, just to make sure he was still there. Still hers. But she dreaded facing him again, after what she did. After what _he _did.

The way he knocked, it sounded like he was _this_ close to breaking it down and killing everyone inside. But her fear of losing him, the boy she loved with all her heart, won out in the end.

She got to her feet from the couch, where she had been lying for the past three days, and shuffled to the door. Her eyes were puffy from crying for almost the entirety of that period, despite the best efforts of her family. Her stepmother had even cleaned up the mess they made and literally spoon-fed her while she lay on the couch, broken and teary-eyed.

Slowly, gingerly, she turned the doorknob, and, even more slowly, teased open the door.

At first, she didn't realise what she was looking at. Her brain took a while to process the image that was before her.

It was Percy, alright, but he was wearing a _suit_, and slinging a _guitar_.

What sealed it, however, was the look in his eyes.

She'd expected anger. Hatred. Bitterness. But instead, the moment her gaze fell on his familiar sea-green orbs, her heart stopped.

Perhaps it was the shattered look in them. She felt a stab of pain inside her, knowing that she had caused him all this misery. And she had the feeling what he did to her had hurt him as much as it had hurt her.

Perhaps it was the resolve that paradoxically coexisted with the brokenness. He was going to do something, something drastic, and she was curious to find out what.

Or perhaps it was the faint, tender glimmer in them, the light which told her that, no matter what she did, no matter how much she hurt him, or how much he hurt her, she would always be his baby. His princess. His Wise Girl. _His_.

And then, her fatal mistake: she stepped back, opening the door all the way.

He moved too quickly for her to react.

Before her hand could drop to her knife, he was mere centimetres from her face.

And, an instant later, his lips were on hers, his hands around the back of her neck and waist.

It was a position they had often found themselves in. But one that, for the past three days, she had feared she would never be in again.

His kiss was fierce, passionate, deep, and it drove her_ crazy_. She vaguely considered slapping him, but the taste of his lips, familiar yet still so insanely delectable, put paid to that notion.

Her arms fell to her sides as his kiss grew more aggressive. When their lips were locked, she was powerless.

And that was it. Her brain stopped working, but suddenly her thoughts became clear. Her mind was made up.

A gentle moan fluttered from her lips as his tongue attacked the inside of her mouth.

"Percy…" she murmured into his lips.

She didn't care about the fight. She didn't care about being wrong. She didn't care about what he did. She didn't care about anything. She just didn't want to be without him. She just wanted to be _his_.

_I lose, okay?_, she wanted to scream.

_You win. I don't care. Just hold me. Kiss me. Love me. Take me. I'm yours._

_Di immortales_, she wished they could just stay like this, together, forever. She'd been so afraid that he was gone for good. And now that she had him back, she would do anything to hold on to him. She would kiss those lips forever.

And then, all of a sudden, he pulled away from her.

Gods, he was cruel.

Against her own will, she lurched forward, reaching out to grab him closer and continue kissing him. A simple and useful fact about human behaviour: threaten someone with the loss of something, and they will try to get as much of it as they can. In other words, you only really appreciate something when it's gone. Or some_one_, for that matter.

He dodged her hands. She stumbled a bit, and then straightened up.

Her eyes met his. They still had that same cold, shattered, miserable look in them.

Anger and fear welled in her. Hadn't he felt anything while they kissed? Did he just come here to give her the last taste of his lips she'd ever get?

And then he began strumming the guitar, and started to sing, the razor edge of the same knife in his gaze, voice, and chords.

* * *

"_Step One: We were just two friends having fun_."

"_Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?_"

The memory of her voice echoed faintly in his head as he gazed into her eyes. She hungered for him, the same way he hungered for her. But he didn't let it show. He wasn't going to let her have him. Not until the end.

_All or nothing_.

He still had her, thank the gods, but how much of her?

_I guess we'll find out._

"_Step Two: Couldn't take my mind off of you_."

_After that summer, our first adventure, I'd missed Annabeth probably more than I'd wanted to admit. I didn't know it, but I was falling for her._

And he remembered that he'd once managed to catch Annabeth in a moment of weakness, and extract from her a confession that she'd harboured a crush on him since they were twelve.

_We've known each other for so long, Annabeth. _Wanted _each other, for all those years._

"_Step Three: Was when you put your arms around me_."

_She'd put her hands round my neck. "I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it."_

"_Step Four: We weren't just friends anymore._"

_When she kissed me, I had the feeling my brain was melting right through my body._

"_When you look my way, nothing left to say  
Just the way that I feel, it's all I can do  
Not to touch your lips, not to kiss your face  
Nothing left to say._"

_We had all that, Annabeth. Something so amazing. So beautiful. So real. So deep._

"_Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz we've never been there before  
Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz my heart can't take any more._"

They were already so close to each other. Almost there. Any day now, he knew, he would finally work up the courage to ask her to go all the way with him. And then, _this_ happened.

_And it was my fault._

"_Step Five: Is when I left those tears in your eyes._"

He could only vaguely recall the fight. The words, the details were lost in the haze of sorrow, pain, jealousy, and rage of the past few days. He'd given her some moonlace to plant, or something, thinking it'd make a nice gift. And suddenly she was screaming at him, tears of sorrow and rage in her eyes.

"_Step Six: I don't even know what I did._"

Apparently, he'd forgotten to mention Calypso to her. Honestly, he'd forgotten about her altogether. Annabeth was the only girl in his world. So, he thought this was going a bit far, and snapped. He'd shouted some rather unkind things about Luke and Annabeth, and then…well, Annabeth got physical.

She slapped him. Hard.

They had screamed at each other. She'd slapped him some more. They'd been so angry at each other that they had completely wrecked Annabeth's room. But he didn't realise how out of control his rage was until he saw his hand moving towards her.

He couldn't believe it. Another broken promise. Another failure. He'd promised to always keep her safe, to protect her with his life. And what did he do? He hit her.

He winced inwardly as he recalled someone else who had broken his promise to Annabeth to protect her.

"_Step Seven: Happened when I walked out the door._"

She stopped. She just…stopped. She sat down, and started softly sobbing.

He'd stood there, silent, unmoving, for maybe five minutes. His anger at her was redirected towards himself and his stupidity.

Finally, he'd bent down, and tried to comfort her, but then she screamed so loudly you could have heard it a block away.

"_GET OUT!_"

And his world came crashing down around him.

"_Step Eight: We aren't even friends anymore._"

As he walked out the door, a knot of dread and despair had formed in his stomach. With every waking second that he spent apart from her after that, it grew tighter and heavier. It had only dissolved when she moaned his name while they were kissing just now. He had been mortally afraid that what he did to her had signalled the end of their relationship. And he didn't know what he would do without her.

_I'm sorry, Annabeth. I'm sorry. I love you. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to lose you. Not for anything. Never. I shouldn't have broken my promise. I shouldn't have hit you. No matter what you said or did. No matter how much you hurt me. But still, I did it. I am the stupidest demigod in the world. I'm sorry. I failed. I love you._

And then his eyes hardened with resolve.

"_When you look my way, nothing left to say  
Just the way that I feel, it's all I can do  
Not to touch your lips, not to kiss your face  
Nothing left to say_."

She was petty and jealous. But he burned with all-consuming passion for her. He _loved_ her.

"_Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz we've never been there before  
Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz my heart can't take any more._"

He wanted her to be _his_. Absolutely. Completely. Every last fibre of her being. Forever. She'd almost slipped out of his fingertips. In his anger, he'd broken a promise he made to her, and almost let her go. He was going to eliminate that possibility for good.

"_Let's take it to the next step  
Won't let her, won't let it go  
Let's take it to the next step  
Won't ever, ever go._"

He had her. He'd wanted her for five years, and now he had her. He was going to hold her forever. He would never, ever let her go, especially not because of something stupid like this. The fear that she would flee from his arms the next time he saw her had been eating into him like acid for the past three days.

He stopped strumming, but maintained eye contact. He was plucking individual strings now; angry, forceful plucking.

He was silent, but his eyes made his message clear:

_You're not getting away from me._

He started strumming again

"_When you look my way, nothing left to say  
Just the way that I feel, it's all I can do  
Not to touch your lips, not to kiss your face  
Nothing left to say._"

He loved her. She loved him. They were closer to each other than anybody else ever could be. He wasn't going to let some stupid fight get in the way of what they had. Thank the gods she hadn't.

"_Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz we've never been there before  
Let's take it to the next step  
'Coz my heart can't take any more._"

Two years. _Two years_. They had gotten this close. But he wanted to get even closer. He wanted to make what they had last forever. He wanted them to be untouchable, miles away from silly things like fights. He wanted to make sure she was his. The past three days had been terrible for both of them, not knowing if this was the end, or what. He didn't want to put either of them through that again.

"_Let's take it to the next step  
Won't let her, won't let it go  
Lets take it to the next step  
Won't ever, ever go._"

Percy sighed as he put down his guitar.

"Annabeth, you're mine. _Mine_."

His voice quivered with emotion. Annabeth saw the tears he had been holding back all this while. He wanted her as much as she wanted him, she realised. She felt a surge of pity as she realised how hard it must have been for him to hold back all of that. Almost as hard as it had been for her to look into his eyes and see the pain she'd caused him.

"And I want you to know that. I'm sorry I hit you."

He reached out and tenderly stroked her cheek where he had struck her. There were tears in her eyes once more, but this time they weren't tears of anger or sorrow. Although the pain had faded from that region of her face long ago, it felt like the sting had never really left until he touched it.

"I'm sorry I overreacted to what you said. I'm sorry I hurt you and broke my promise to always protect you. I _love_ you, Annabeth. I really do. And I want to be closer to you than anybody else in the world ever can. I want you to remember, forever and always, that you're mine. I don't want you to worry about silly little fights tearing us apart. I want us to have something permanent."

Annabeth bit her lip. He was going to ask her to do it. They'd never discussed this, but the unspoken understanding was that they'd wait. But now, both of them were drunk on desire, consumed by passion, and starved of each other. She wasn't sure she'd be able to say no, even to something like this.

She considered shoving him out the door and slamming it shut, but then he grabbed her, squeezing her against himself, and pulled her into a less-than-chaste kiss. And it was then the daughter of Athena knew the battle was lost. Percy had her. There was no escape.

He poured even more passion and aggression into this kiss, his tongue scouring the insides of her mouth. His hands ran all over her, sending her nerves into overdrive, as her slender fingers curled around his muscular arms, gripping them tightly.

The gasps and moans tumbled freely from both of their lips now. Percy wasn't holding back any more. The full force of the ocean washed over her, and she loved it. She'd been so afraid she'd never feel it again, but now she was about to feel it on a whole new level.

Just when she was about to fall onto the ground and let him take over, Percy pulled away from her again.

She suddenly felt cold, hungry and empty all over.

She regained her balance and glared at Percy, as he slung the guitar off and reached for his suit jacket.

"Hurry up," she growled, animal hunger permeating her voice as she tugged at her own shirt, imagining Percy pulling it off her. "My parents won't be home for another hour."

Unbelievably, a smile played on his lips, and his eyes lit up a little, as if he'd just gotten a joke.

"What?" she demanded.

"Come on, Wise Girl. I love you. I wasn't going to make you do _that_."

_We can't. Not yet. That's still two steps away. But soon, if everything works out._

And then, before she could reply, he dropped to one knee, pulling something out of his jacket pocket. The playful smile faded from eyes, replaced by a light of sincerity, tenderness, and heartfelt love. He took her hand in his, and extended his other hand. On it rested a box covered in silver and green velvet.

Annabeth's eyes widened, and she paled. Suddenly, it all made sense.

_Gods,_ _he wasn't going to…the suit…he's going to…_

"Annabeth," he said, looking her straight in the eye, "it took a fight to make it painfully clear, but I can't live without you. You are the purpose of my life. Every breath I take is for you. I _need _you. I _love_ you. I want you to be _mine_, completely and utterly, forever and ever. I want to love you as much as I can. I want to give myself to you, every last bit of me. I would treat you like a queen if you'd let me be your king. I will never, ever break another promise I make to you. We're already this close, Annabeth. We've waited for two years. It's time for us to take it to the next step, for the two of us to become so close, we can't be torn apart by anything. _One_. Close enough to start our own family. So…"

He let go of her hand and opened the box. Inside was a silver ring with a green gem inlaid in it.

"Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"

Silence.

Pure terror rose in Percy's chest. He'd held back for the entirety of this session, building up to this, hoping she'd love him enough to make the lifelong commitment. True, it had only been a few minutes, but, seeing her so sad and broken, gazing so longingly at him, with those tender lips of hers just begging to be kissed, it might as well have been an eternity. He had wanted so badly to scoop her up in his arms and kiss her again and again, but he had managed to restrain himself. All or nothing, as he had told himself earlier. Either she agreed to be bonded to him for eternity, or…well, he hadn't really planned what he would do if she said no. Which made the wait even more terrifying.

The seconds ticked by, torturously slow.

Tears trickled down her face.

"I…I said I was never, ever going to make things easy for you, right?" she asked weakly.

Percy nodded breathlessly.

_Come on, come on, say yes, say yes…_

"It took all that," she whispered. "Consider that 'not making things easy'."

And it was pretty much the best not-breaking-up/make-up/proposal-acceptance kiss of all time.

**A/N Jake:** **Bro, you gotta let things take their natural path. Look, look, let me explain some junk about dating. Right now, you're at Tier 1, which is hugging. But pretty soon, you'll be at Tier 2, which is smooching. Then down the road, you'll make it to Tier 5, where she'll let you discover all fifteen feet of her long, beautiful stomach. Then, after a while, you'll make it to Tier 8, where you touch her horn for the very first time. Very special.**

**Finn: What about Tier 15?**

**Jake: YOU STAY AWAY FROM THAT! DO ****_NOT_**** DO TIER 15!**

**—Adventure Time (S4E16 ****_Burning Low_****)**

**Bet you dirty-minded lil' buggers thought this was going to be about ****_that_****, eh? Well, it's not.**

**This one was a little tougher for me. Being, you know, a guy, my interest in tragedy, angst, etc. focuses on heroic tragedy: sacrifice, facing impossible odds, doing the right thing when it's really difficult, etc. Not so much on relationship problems.**

**The song ****_Next Step_**** was recorded by Big Time Rush (WOO HOO! PJO RUSHERS FTW!) for their third album ****_24/seven_****, but it was not put on the final track list. Shame, really; I can't stop listening to it. You can find it on YouTube.**

**Somewhat inspired by Mandi2341's ****_Secrets & Sleepovers_****, whose title totally sounds like an ****_Austin & Ally_**** episode name.**


End file.
